Bonus Poem for the Day

I know I've been throwing out a daily poem that I am dubiously dubbing my
"favorites," but I had to share this one.

I subscribe to several mailing lists that flood my e-mailboxes every April
with daily poems, in celebration of National Poetry Month. It's a struggle
to read them all, but if only all of life were filled with such
"struggles". Once in a blue moon, I see something that makes me gasp. Maybe
not an external gasp, but an internal shudder of brain pleasure.

I perhaps had heard the name Julia Hartwig before, but I knew nothing of
her. Turns out, she is a Polish octogenarian poet that my "Borzoi Reader"
introduced me to this morning:

"It is with great pride that Knopf brings the poetry of Julia Hartwig, whom
Czeslaw Milosz called "the grande dame of Polish poetry," to the American
audience, for the first time in book form. Her volume of selected work is
aptly entitled In Praise of the Unfinished."

Dig this marvelous poem, perfect for Spring:

Tell Me Why This Hurry

The lindens are blossoming the lindens have lost their blossoms
and this flowery procession moves without any restraint
Where are you hurrying lilies of the valley jasmines
petunias lilacs irises roses and peonies
Mondays and Tuesdays Wednesdays and Fridays
nasturtiums and gladioli zinnias and lobelias
yarrow dill goldenrod and grasses
flowery Mays and Junes and Julys and Augusts
lakes of flowers seas of flowers meadows
holy fires of fern one-day grails
Tell me why this hurry where are you rushing
in a cherry blizzard a deluge of greenness
all with the wind racing in one direction only
crowns proud yesterday today fallen into sand
eternal desires passions mistresses of destruction

Wow. I love this poem and am looking forward to reading more from Julia
Hartwig.

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